Monday, July 7, 2008

In a day or two, you'll see an interview I filmed with Bruce Weinstein, author of the Ultimate Ice Cream Book. It was set up through foodbuzz, a rapidly growing online foodie community that I serve as a featured publisher for. I will save the details for that upcoming post, but after talking (and eating) ice cream with "Mr. Ice Cream," as I call him, I was inspired to make a batch myself.

I decided to do vanilla, as it really is the king of ice cream flavors (sorry chocolate). No other flavor makes milk taste milkier, or cream taste creamier. When I do vanilla ice cream, I prefer the old fashion "American," or "Philadelphia-style" which doesn't contain any eggs, as the more popular French vanilla does.While this style of ice cream is certainly not as rich, in my opinion that sacrifice is rewarded with a brighter, more pronounced vanilla flavor. I also use a combination of milk and cream, which is obviously much lighter than the traditional all cream versions. You should experiment with different proportions of dairy, and find your "perfect scoop."

The Cuisinart ice cream maker pictured here is the one I use, and highly recommend. It's relatively inexpensive, and will provide many years of homemade ice cream and sorbets. The great thing about this model is that the "bucket" is kept in the freezer, and is ready any time you are. Enjoy!

68 comments:

According to Alton Brown, you can substitute any kind of preserve for the sugar in this kind of recipe, thus creating a vast cornucopia of ice creams with one basic recipe.Just replace the 3/4 cup of sugar with 3/4 cup of peach preserves, and you get peach ice cream.

I have been pondering about getting an ice cream maker for a long time. So many brands to choose from, which one works best. Now after watching Chef John with the Cuisinart I am sold. Granny is making ice cream for the grandkids. Thanks

The typical 'french vanila' ice cream is actually not flavored with vanila but with bourbonal, a synthetic analog of vanilin (it has ethyl inplace of methyl). Bourbonal has somewhat more forward and stronger flavor than vanilin and is not delicate as the real thing.

Personally I like the powdered whole vanila more than the natural vanila extract - even as this produces dark specs in the ice cream.

Also most ice creams nowadays contain thickeners (xanthan and carob bean gum) which make the scoops hold together longer.Homemade stuff without thickeners tastes better. (but melts and drips faster if you put it in the cone on a hot day).

Btw. nice video - I did not realize there was such a simple icemaking machine.I sould try something like this, maybe with walnuts or roasted hazelnuts.

I had an ice cream maker on my birthday/Christmas list. I saw this... then promptly bought one on eBay. I'm looking forward to using my Mexican vanilla from el mercado. I'm sort of drooling thinking about this.

I would like to seek for help. My Ice cream maker is kenwood that only few choces here in my country. I encounter with just any recipee I folow, the Ice cream just can't transform to cream and remain watery though I follow the manufecturer instructrion.Hope that I can get some hint what goes wrong. Will it be the type of milk or other ingredient I use, or just simply the technique is not right.

When you say cream do you mean heavy whipping cream? My local grocer has whipping cream or heavy whipping cream, half and half and non dairy creamer. Which do I use? the regular whipping cream? I do not see anything that says just cream or light cream. Thanks.

Thanks so much:O) I recently watched a program on public tv about the history of ice cream and all the different creameries around the US. Maybe because of the program or that I live in Florida (hot!) I'd love to make a true old fashioned vanilla milkshake. Can you make that in the future on your site? Thanks and I've learned so much from your website :O) take care. Elaine

I just got the cuisinart ICE-30BBCC (2Qt Frozen Yogourt & Ice Cream Maker) model and tried a frozen yogourt recipe that was in the booklet: 4 cups lowfat yogourt,18 ounces puréed berries, 3/4 cups whole milk & vanilla. It seemed very much filled to the top and it remained a thick liquid after 55 mins of churning. The bowl was properly frozen so I am wondering if the machine is defective or is the recipe just no good...any suggestions? Note: Some have suggested covering the top with a towel to keep cooler and someone advised against the booklet's many recipes. Is this true?

Thanks for your reply! -I am looking forward to trying your recipe as soon as the bowl freezes tommorow night. What I'm noticing from other recipes, is that the quantities that I used seem a little high- even for 2 Qts maker (it did seem too close to the top) Can this make a difference in the churning? Also, do you happen to have an alternate recipe with some lowfat yogurt that will churn nicely? I'm afraid of attempting with yogurt again!

Hi! Just wanted to mention that we tried your recipe in the Cuisinart Ice-30BCC (and put a towel over the top, to ensure coolness) and it was SUPERB!! With a hint of chocolate syrup it's fantastic too. We will never need store bought ice cream again! We will stick with the smaller recipes not to tax the machine and attempt a yogourt base soon!

This looks delicious! I love making ice cream, but the only problem with the ice cream makers where you freeze the bowl (like the one I have) is that you can't make more than one batch at a time, because you have to refreeze the bowl between each batch. Not a great choice for big gatherings or if you just want to make a couple of different flavors, but otherwise it is super easy and you don't have to fuss with ice or salt.

hey chef ,help needed please .!well your recipe did seem simple and tempting and that is what prompted me to try it out in my ice cream maker which i had almost forgotten i even had ...lol...!i did as instructed , but the result was rather strange .after about 40 mins of churning , it seemed its done and on opening the jar , it did look as if all is well.but alas .the top of the jar was frozen ice cream , solid , but at the bottom was the watery batter, the ice cream premix .!i used 4 cups of milk ,with 2 cups of regular cream , sugar to taste and heated the mix , cooled it and added it to the machine .

any idea as to what step went wrong ?what did i goofed up ...my kids were so excited , but damn it turned a damn squib .... :(

i can guess , it would be difficult for you to trouble shoot as to what went wrong , just from sitting there , but can you please clarify or look into these points and clear my doubts . points which i seem might have been damaging to the recipe ..

neither of those would have an effect. You could put plain milk in the machine and it would thicken if the machine is working. Maybe you left it too long, since those barrels do thaw after a while. Maybe it was almost there, and then you left it spinning and it started to melt again? The other thing that prevents freezing would be too much sugar, but that's probably not the case. Other than that, I really don't know. Sorry!

it might be my machine , as i said before also , i had almost forgotten i had it .

my letting it churn for that long was the reason that i could not appreciate any progress in the premix . it started freezing only after about 30 mins and at 40 mins when i figured it was done ( which actually wasnt .. ), i removed it .but ironically to the contrary .!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I believe I have the exact same Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker. I tried the recipes in the booklet that came with it, and none of them seemed to give me good results. It'd always not nearly as frozen as it should be. I altered your recipe slightly, using 1 tsp of peppermint instead of vanilla and 1/2 cup of chopped up chocolate chips. Since I've had a problem with the ice cream not firming up at all I waited added both ingredients 5 minutes before I was going to turn the machine off. My concoction passed a quick taste test before I put it in the freezer to firm up some more. Your basic recipe has given me the best results I've ever gotten. I even used half and half instead of cream. I think I'll use some heavy cream next time for a fuller flavor.

If you're following the directions & using the same machine and ingredients, yet the stuff won't freeze, check your vanilla extract. Another poster mentioned that she discovered her IMITATION vanilla had propylene glycol (yuck!) and that acted as an anti-freeze in her ice cream mix.

Perhaps you could help me here because I tried your ice cream recipe (and I bought a Cuisinart ice cream maker almost same as yours to do it!) and tried 3 differents versions using 10%, or 15% or milk and 35% cream (ratio that you mentionned). My only problem is knowing when to stop heating the mixture before putting it in the fridge to cool. I'm so afraid that it will boil over or, to the contrary, that it will not cook long enough, that it took me about 45 minutes to an hour to heat, stirring constantly... it seems to me that's way too long. Am I right? I have an electric stove. I still end up with ice cream thought (but with different textures). Can you help me with a time limit? I don't have a dessert thermometer (but I have one for meat). I'd really appreciate your info on this matter or else, sooner or later, my kids might find me momified, next to my stove with a silicon spatula in my hand, stirring powdered ice cream in a saucepan... :))

Your heat is too low. Crank it up to medium. I can't give you a time. Just use go until 170 F.

Even if you get a few tiny egg chunks, which you won't, you can strain. Should only take 10-15 minutes. You're just going too slow. Don't worry about over-cooking. Use the thermometer and nothing can go wrong.